---
name: first-90-days
description: A new-hire onboarding cycle kit — day-1 landing sheet with signed expectations, day-30/60/90 checkpoint conversations on cards, an anonymous confidence pulse at four points, and a quiet-exit watch-out deck. Printable poker cards, run sheet and A3 poster.
version: 1.0.0
license: CC-BY-4.0
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash(curl:*), Bash(unzip:*)
metadata:
  category: scenario-kits
  group_size: 1
  duration_minutes: 30
  setting: hybrid
  props: [expectations card per pair, checkpoint cards, pulse slips or form]
  depth: tool-type
  language: en
  updated: 2026-10-19
---

# First 90 Days

The onboarding cycle on paper: four moments where a new hire quietly re-decides — day 1, 30, 60, 90 — each with written questions, an anonymous confidence pulse, and a watch-out card that names the quiet exits before they happen. For HR teams, hiring managers and small companies that cannot afford a month-four surprise.

## When to use this kit

- Onboarding currently means a laptop, a wiki link and good intentions.
- Someone left at month three and everyone was surprised.
- You standardize onboarding across managers whose styles range from daily coffee to "ping me if lost".

## What is in the folder

| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `first-90-days-prop-cards.pdf` | Poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed + cut guides): master, day-1 landing, day-30, day-60, day-90, watch-out, backs + blanks |
| `first-90-days-run-sheet.pdf` | Print edition: cycle guide + review sheet bound as one A4 document |
| `*-Letter.pdf` | US Letter paper size for the print documents in this folder — same content, bookmarks and a linked TOC in every edition |
| `first-90-days-guide.md` | Cycle guide: the four checkpoints, what this is not, the day clock, failure modes, variations |
| `first-90-days-debrief.md` | Cycle review: four checkpoints read back, six questions with targets, failure modes |
| `first-90-days-license.md` | License in plain language — what you may do, what you must keep |
| `first-90-days-activity-poster.pdf` | The whole cycle on one A3 wall sheet: checkpoints, quiet signals |
| `first-90-days-start-here.md` | Start here — pick your lane, file map, print list |

## Running it

Day 1: walk the welcome sheet, sign the expectations card, book all three checkpoints on the calendar, send the week-1 pulse. Day 30/60: run the card questions both ways — two kept, one changed, written down; check last time's change actually changed. Day 90: read all three sheets together, keep/stop/start on the role, set the next quarter's goal. The pulse stays anonymous; the review sheet gets filled after every cycle, not annually.

## Run this activity with an agent

An HR team can hand this whole folder to their AI agent. Install first — one command, and the folder any skills loader can pick up:

```bash
# install the whole skill folder, one command
curl -LO https://workshopskill.com/en/activities/first-90-days/files/first-90-days.zip
unzip first-90-days.zip   # -> first-90-days/SKILL.md + all files + manifest
```

The zip unpacks to a directory named `first-90-days` holding this SKILL.md, every file it references, a manifest.

Individual files, if you only need some — anonymous, CC BY 4.0:

```bash
# 1. Get the printable checkpoint deck (poker deck, CC BY 4.0)
curl -O https://workshopskill.com/en/activities/first-90-days/files/first-90-days-prop-cards.pdf

# 2. Get the cycle review sheet (four checkpoints read back + six questions)
curl -O https://workshopskill.com/en/activities/first-90-days/files/first-90-days-debrief.md

# 3. Get the cycle guide (the day clock, the watch-out signals)
curl -O https://workshopskill.com/en/activities/first-90-days/files/first-90-days-guide.md
```

Everything above runs with no account and no login.

Useful preparation facts for the agent:
- The pulse is four short anonymous check-ins: week 1, day 30, day 60, day 90 — confidence and one open question each time.
- All three checkpoints go on the calendar on day 1, or the cycle does not exist.
- The expectations card is signed by both sides; it is the artifact that prevents the month-four surprise.
- The checkpoints are two-way: the new hire grades the onboarding too.
- A dip shared by five hires is a process bug, not five weak hires — read the aggregate first.

**Where to put the skill.** Drop the unzipped `first-90-days/` directory into your agent's skills folder and it loads automatically: Claude Code `~/.claude/skills/first-90-days/` (or `.claude/skills/` in the project), OpenAI Codex `~/.codex/skills/first-90-days/`, Qoder `~/.qoder/skills/first-90-days/`. No skills folder in your agent? Paste this file into the chat and ask the agent to follow it. Per-agent walkthroughs: https://workshopskill.com/en/skill-guides/

## Facilitation notes

- Say the retention truth on day one: telling us early is a favor, not a failure.
- A checkpoint that surfaces a bad fit is a success — the cycle exists to find out, not to perform success.
- Anonymity is architecture or decoration; a named confidence score is a review wearing a mask.
- Keep the review sheet with the pulse slips — the pair is the evidence.

## Remix: make it yours

## Attribution

Filed by hand and checked folder against folder — script, timings, prop sizes and the measure agree. Free under CC BY 4.0 — run it, copy it, rebrand it for your own onboarding; keep the attribution and the drawer stays open.